blog :: IO Life → [String] | living with side effects

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Seth Brau on Vimeo.

via Christian

This doesn’t happen in America! ;)

Unfortunately this fantastic gothic/darkwave band from Germany split up.

See also my previous post.

• Haggard @ Tue, 21 Oct 2008, Backstage Werk
• Die Apokalyptischen Reiter @ Thu, 6 Nov 2008, Backstage Werk
• Dark Tranquillity @ Sun, 9 Nov 2008, Backstage Werk

And I wonder why most concerts are at Backstage Werk these days…

This morning, I decided to change the name of my blog. In the last few years, it was called str(fpletz.life). This was a reference to the Python programming language. The statement roughly translates to: give me the string representation of the attribute life of the object fpletz.

Having programmed only a few lines of Python in the last few months, it was time for a change. These days, I’m amazed by the functional programming language Haskell, so the new name of my blog is blog :: IO Life → [String]. This statement is the type declaration of a function called blog that expects one monadic I/O parameter with a payload of the type Life and returns a list of strings. So this function is in fact representing my blog, which takes the current state of my life and the world I’m living in and returns blog posts.

However, such a definition is of course not possible. You can’t extract a value out of a monad or transform it. By having acquired the state, you have caused side effects. But that’s why a human is writing this blog and not the haskell compiler. I can deal with the side effects and can choose to ignore them. ;)

The bells again… someone has died
The bells of the end told to remind
That life’s but a race against time

This verse describes a funeral taking place. One should remember the shortness of life and never being able to reach all the goals in one’s life in time. You can certainly try and everybody does in fact, but in the end you are going to hear the bells after all: you die.

At your back youl’ll always hear
The chariot of time hurrying near
The faster you run the closer it comes
A pursuer you can not outrun

Now, the author clarifies that the harder you try to your life’s goals on a scale of months or years, the less you are going to succeed. Why? The more you attempt planning your future, the less control you actually have on your life. You may come close to your objectives, but this path you will be taking is stressful and unfulfilling.

Refrain 1:
Hear these words I say:
Make the most out of your day
For brief is the light on our way
On this momentary trail

The refrain now gives you the solution: Seize the day! Your way through life may be brief, but this momentary trail, this very day you are happening to live right now, is what’s keeping you alive. The small but nevertheless pleasing and comforting events that happen every single day are the ones one should seek and enjoy.

Refrain 2:
Hear these words, awake:
Make the most out of your day
For brief is the time, so brief is the time
That we’re allowed to stay

This variation of the refrain refers to the fact that we shouldn’t take everything for granted. Even though we should enjoy every day for ourselves, we shouldn’t forget the happiness of other people. We’re staying because they are allowing us to.

The bells again… whose turn this time?
To reach the end, yours or mine?
Each funeral just makes us realize
That life’s but a series of goodbyes

With this verse, the variation of the refrain is clarified. We’re not the only ones heading for death eventually. Who will be next? One can’t know, but we have to realize that there will be a next one. Make the most out of your day, and equally help your friends having a good time before it’s too late.

[Refrain 1]
Too late

[Refrain 1]
[Refrain 2]
Life passes by, melts away, like snow in the spring
We all are blind to the running of time

The melting of the snow in spring points out that dying in most cases is not a quick event. By growing old, our body is so slowly deteriorating that you can’t see that time is running out for you and you are restricted in what you are able to do. Enjoying yourself will become difficult. So have fun as long as you are still able to!

Consider yourself dying. Your whole life rushes by your eyes in a matter of milliseconds. Was your life worth living for? When would you consider your life fulfilled anyway? Having worked hard your whole life getting rich, a wife, some kids, a house in the country? Or is it the knwledge, that you lived every single day as though it was the last day of your life? Was it worth having strained yourself on a daily basis for an uncertain future fantasy that maybe never fully became reality? Or having succeeded in the short-term day to day goals by having had as much joy as you could?

Well, I choose the latter. Carpe diem!

You want Tschunk, a nice alcoholic cocktail with coffeine, but you don’t have any Club-Mate? We had this situation at our hackspace Rettungskapsel this evening. Well, of course we have regular erva mate tea which can act as a replacement. ;-)

For this purpose we, schneider and myself, blanched extra strong mate tea for dilusing with rum, preferably Havanna Club. Together with a lime wedge and brown sugar you get Tschunk. Happy Hacking!